


You Have Been Chosen

by Mortain



Category: Transformers (Bay Movies), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gen, Other, non-cannon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-03
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-02-16 12:13:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18691276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mortain/pseuds/Mortain
Summary: Josephine Mitchel started her night like any other.. working. On her way home from a double shift, that's when shit got real... real interesting. While traversing her way through downtown Atlanta Georgia. It all started with a robot Rumble, and only goes down hill from there. It's a race against time and the Bots as to who tracks her down and retrieves the strange item that was thrust upon her. (Takes place after The Last Knight)





	1. So it Begins

**Author's Note:**

> This is me writing, after a 20 year hiatus, so please be kind. Original OC's mixed with regulars. Takes place after The Last Knight in the Bayverse. OC's are characters developed from the Transformers 2d10 RPG I'm writing and working on. Tags are in place for how this story will go eventually and some tags will be added per chapter as I go there. So bear with me.
> 
> Critiques welcomed, as well as spelling errors pointed out. I am dyslexic.
> 
> if you like it, or don't, let me know in comments.
> 
> Thanks,  
> Mortie

“This can’t be happening to me,” she said as she ran for her life away from the turmoil behind her. Other people who had gotten out of their car to watch now also running with her. Her feet pounded the pavement, determined to put as much distance between herself and that fight. Her right hand tightly clutched around the object that was unceremoniously shoved into her hand by that tiny little bot. Whatever it was was making her more paranoid she was being chased by the step. She rounded the corner, boots sliding on a patch of wetness on the asphalt, she ducked in behind a car, her heart pounding in her chest, breaths coming in ragged gulps to get more air into her lungs.

She heard the fight coming closer down the street, as a large bot landed in the middle of the street behind her. That startled her enough that she took off as fast as she could again, watching people duck into nearby businesses to get out of harms reach. _Stupid people_ , she thought to herself; _didn’t they remember Chicago and the massive damage that was done to that city by these things?_

She put good distance between the fight and her this time, as she ducked into a parking structure and headed for the stairs. Wisps of her long black hair had come loose in the mad dash for safety, as she hit the first stairwell under the building, and headed down, taking the steps two at a time. When she reached the bottom, she ducked in under the stairs, hidden and out of the way of being noticed by idle gazes. Her breathing was ragged in her ears, as she closed her eyes and worked to calm down.

A while passed, as she remembered the thing in her hand. She opened her calloused fingers, and in it was a slight object of crystalline make. It’s clear structure and wire housing glinting with the most amazing blue she had ever seen. She stared at it in awe before glancing about making sure she was truly alone. She didn’t know what this was, but the tiny bot in the fight had seen fit to give it to her in a moment of pure desperation. “Keep it safe,” it had yelled after her as her memory played back the moment.

She shifted in her position, sitting in the ground and cupping the object in her hands. _What could it be,_ she mused silently to herself. Dark chocolate eyes taking in the slight glow of the object. _I have to get this far away from here,_ she thought to herself, but she was hidden out of sight and deep below ground where hopefully no one and nothing would detect her. Carefully, she took off her flannel shirt exposing the plain white t-shirt underneath. She tucked the crystal in the shirt and balled it up, tying the bundle with the arms. Hopefully this would help mask the signal of whatever it was so she could get it out of the city and back home for a closer examination.

She laid the shirt bundle in her lap, leaning back against the cool concrete wall behind her, eyes sliding closed. She drifted into an uneasy rest.

 

* * *

 

The little bot known only as the letter “G” had watched the human retreat into the mass of people running for their lives. When he had touched her hand to put the spark shard into it, he remembered the jump of electricity from his fingers to hers. It was an odd sensation that he hadn’t felt in years as he quickly glanced at the direction the girl had gone, committing her image and scent to his memory banks. As he sat out of the way of the main fighting, he looked around for an easy target. Small as he was, he was no slouch to fighting things much much larger than himself. Easily slipping in under chassis and armor to rip out and expose vital parts of Cybertronian anatomy during a fight. It was what he was good at, among other things.

He got up and ran himself in the opposite direction the girl had gone, knowing the Decepticons would think he still had the spark shard and would follow him, not the woman. He was quick and agile, and didn’t meet much opposition as he darted between abandoned cars on foot to a better spot he could use his tiny alt mode in and escape the continuing chaos.

A decent league of Decepticons had tracked him to the spot down town where he was riding with a human (unbeknownst to them at the time,) and had started the fight for the spark shard that he had carried with him. How Megatron had found out about it, he had yet to figure out, but it would come to him or he would find out, one way or another. When there where no humans around, he shifted into one of his few alt forms and flew off, the tiny silver and muted gold drone flying high overhead, scanning the area quickly for the woman. When he didn’t find her, he thanked Primus she was out of harms way… For now.

 

* * *

 

The woman awoke to headlights flashing on her as a vehicle headed out of the parking garage. The slight chill in the late spring air let her know it was nighttime now, and she crawled out of her hiding spot and stretched her now stiff muscles. Her shirt carefully tucked under her arm, she took the stairs up to the ground level, looking around for any potential enemies. When she found none to her perception, she walked away from the underground parking structure, her work boots making a sound on the concrete sidewalk that seemed loud to her ears.

She walked for many blocks, watching her back trail as her old training had taught her to do, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible in passing. Though it was a Friday night, the streets should have been packed with bar crawlers, people, and busy. They where deserted with good reason.

When she rounded the corner to head to the next bus depot, she ran right into a military blockade. Dressed in desert cammo and tactical gear while sporting some heavy hardware. “got another one” said one of the men, motioning in her direction. The spotlight swung in her direction and she stopped, keeping her hands where they could see them. The last thing she wanted to do was get shot tonight for seeming to be a threat. Two men came out and looked her over, patting down the obvious parts and taking the bundled flannel from her roughly. “She’s good” the soldier motioned with an arm wave, and they escorted her to the blockading vehicles.

“Anyone with you?” Came an older man in his mid to late thirties, dressed in the same cammo and attire as the rest. His eagle blue eyes looked her up and down as they handed her back her bundle, still tied.

“No sir,” she said in a snipped, long ago used tone. “I was hiding from the fighting, in a parking garage under the stairs.” she gave him a steady stone face, actions that came back easy to her. How she hated that she fell back into this mindset so easily. It’s almost as if she never left.

“How close where you to the fighting?” the commander asked, his tone was sharp and curt, and how it made her skin crawl.

“Not very sir,” the lie came easily to her lips. “I was just trying to get home after working a double. Nothing more.” She resisted the urge to shift her feet.

“You enlisted?” he asked, curiosity creasing his brow. “Most people are terrified of us. You don’t seem to be.”

“Former sir,” She said gritting her teeth. She had to get out of here soon or the sensors on top of their vehicles would pick up the item she now carried. “Did four tours in the fubar sandbox and came home.”

Giving her one more good look up and down, the commander waived her through the blockade “You have a safe trip home Ma’am,” He said as he watched her walk away.

 

* * *

 

The rest of her trip home on the public bus was uneventful, as word of the fight downtown between the giant alien robots was on everyone's thoughts and words. Walking the two blocks from the bus stop to her small house, she opened the waist high gate to her yard and walked down the path. The American flag and POW/MIA flags handing in front of her porch from her roof. She dug her keys out of the pocket, getting out the dongol that let her into her house. Tapping it on the security pad, she heard the door unlock and she stepped inside.

Her smart wired house came alive, lights dim in dark corners, the news on her tiny smart speaker playing today’s local and national news. She was famished, having not eaten in the gods only know how long. She kicked off her boots at the doorway, socked feet hot on the cool wooden floor. She took her bundle into the kitchen, setting it on the table and turning to her freezer. Opening it, she dug out some Microwave dinner, she didn’t care which, and tossed it into the microwave for 5 minutes.

Her mind reeled at today’s events, she watched the microwave turn her dinner around and around with no real notice. She had almost been crushed, and no one would have noticed. Her last surviving relative would have been notified, and that would have been the end of that. No more life, no more day to day toil. The microwave beeping brought her out of her repose, as she grabbed a kitchen towel to retrieve it by.

Setting the meal on the table, she went and got a fork out of the drawer. Coming to sit back down, she methodically ate, staring at the bundle of shirt on her table, wondering why her, why now, and what was that thing. Setting aside her finished dinner, she reached out and grabbed her bundled flannel. Untying the arms, she unrolled it and the crystal clattered on the table top rolling to a stop on it’s side.

Picking it up, she was shocked again, her arm snapping back out of range with the speed of a viper. She sucked her fingers, looking at them for damage, but in finding none, she reached out for the object again. This time she was prepared for the shock, and she jumped a little as her fingers on her right hand went slightly numb. Bringing the crystalline item close to her face to look at it more in depth, she could see some alien writing on the flat pieces, and the wire that seemed to hold the crystal in place had segments to it.

The blue of the crystal dazzled her eyes, it’s inner core seeming to be a swirling mass of light and dark motes. “What are you...” She said to the nothings of her house, her voice a soft whisper. “and now what do I do with you...” She trailed off, setting it down atop her flannel. She looked around her house, her head sweeping slowly left to right, before she looked at the cubby under her stairs. “might as well toss you in the safe.” She said, getting up and walking to the door of the under stairs.

Tapping a panel, a piece of the wall swung open and a keypad appeared. Punching in the code, the door to the under stairs opened, and she stepped in, ducking as she went.

Inside was a set of stairs that lead to a hidden basement, unseen or unknown from a casual look of the house. She flicked the light switches on, the florescent lights humming with life and illuminating the basement. Down here, she kept her past. The tactical vest that saved her life from snipers. The tags of her fallen friends, mounted in a case on the wall with their flags and names underneath. “Evening gang,” she said to no one in particular, heading over to the gun safe against the far wall. “You wouldn’t believe the fuck-it-all day I had today.”

As she spoke again to the air. She told the nothing of the basement her story from her point of view, playing back all the minute details in her mind. The fight, the little bot, the crystal shoved into her hand and her running for her life amid a giant alien robot rumble. Her hiding, and her stop by the blockade. And her uneventful ride home. “I should have turned this thing in when I had the chance…,” she mused to the air. In her mind she heard her deceased brothers replies. “Don’t do it.” they said to her. “You’ll only make things worse...” they chided her in her mind. Their voices crisp, as if they where sitting on the couch behind her, having been right there only moments before.

She knew they where gone, taken by an IED to their striker that killed many of them on contact. Her arm came up, resting on the safe, forehead resting on her forearm. An exasperated sigh rolled from deep in her chest. “I know.. I know..” she said to the nothing. “But something in all this doesn’t feel right...” she whispered.

“You knew, you tried to warn us… but you knew somehow. We didn’t listen...” the voices in her head trailed off as she took a deep breath, the visions of her past coming to the forefront of her memories like a bad nightmare.

 

* * *

 

 She was back in her Striker, atop the gun mount, listening to her brothers joke and carry on as they traveled the very dangerous roads of Afghanistan. She was the only woman in their unit (for now.) And that didn’t seem to bother her or the guys. Oh when she had got there, the catcalls where bad, though they were not suppose to do it, they did anyways, and she had to put a couple of them in their place before they got the hint. She never reported them though, that would cause bad blood between them.

 After a time, the men in her unit accepted her, treating her like one of the guys. Bathroom time shared without regret or shame, and bunking down they had an ongoing joke as to who’s bunk she would visit that night. It was all in jest of course, and she knew it. But that didn’t stop other men on base.

 Her body sighed, resting against the safe, eyes tightening in their closure. She hated these memories, but they wouldn’t stop coming. The doctor at the VA gave her some pills, but they never worked. So she had to suffer through this alone.

 She was on her Striker again, that bad feeling she had growing more frantic in the pit of her stomach. She leaned into the cab to tell the guys.. and they dismissed her with typical sexist banter of her being a woman and it being that time of the month again. She growled under her breath, before screaming at the driver to stop.  
  
That’s when everything happened. She was shot by a sniper in the sweet spot. Her tactical vest taking most of the impact. She was knocked down in her seat, as she tried to scream “SNIPER” but it came out as a wheezing hiss. The driver went to pull over, and the dread that filled her was palatable in her throat. Things from there seemed to move in slow motion.

 The rig exploded, shrapnel flying around the cab, missing her, and shredding her brothers. The door on the right side was mangled, and she could smell iron and copper in the air with the smell of the powder used in the blast. The convoy came under fire from insurgents on the side of the road approximately 250 yards to the right of the rig. Someone Inside was screaming about his arm, another about his legs. When she crawled into the cab, she vomited.

 Staff Sergeant Fields in the passenger front right was missing his right side; he was in his dying moments as he tried to suck in air but it sounded weird to her ringing ears. Corporal Marsh was looking stunned and missing his lower legs, blood flowing from ragged edges and gaping wounds. He probably wouldn’t make it. One of the men grabbed her on her left, looking through her, not at her and as screaming about an IED.

 It was mad panic, and she tried to vomit again, but only dry heaved. She sat there, the smells, the sounds, as others in the convoy got to their position to assess the damage that had been done while others where laying down cover fire to let people help them in the rig. The sound of their yelling for medics, and them removing people out of the vehicle she didn’t notice. She finally came around to her senses when someone shook her. “PFC Mitchel!” came a voice, over and over again as she looked at the soldier she didn’t seem to recognize.  
  
“Are you hurt? Are you bleeding?” She gave herself the barest of attention and shook her head no. The medic helped her out of the left side of the striker, taking cover from the firefight on the other side. The Medic gave her a once over, and determined she was in fact fine, moved on to help pull others out of the compartment. Corporal Marsh was getting his leg stumps tied with a tourniquet, his screaming really not registering as her ears where still ringing heavily from the blast. Three of her battle brothers lay also in the fine sand, their eyes full of fear and unblinking as they lay dead.

 

* * *

 

She trembled, bloody hands covering her face as she broke down in her mind, her senses coming back to her reality in her basement. Both of her forearms where resting on the safe, her head on them. Her whole body trembled, the crystal in her right hand gripped tightly as tears streamed down her face. She let things process slowly as they would. The vision fading to her closed eyes, wetness running down her cheeks.

 Taking a few more calming breaths, she scrubbed her eyes with the back of her right hand, her left coming up to wipe away the rest that her right had missed. “Fuck it all,” she said to the nothing in the basement. Quickly she typed in the keypad of the safe, the soft beeping filling the basement. She pulled open the safe, an assortment of weapons inside, she placed the crystal shard on the shelf and closed it back up. She waited till she heard the locking mechanisms clink into place before letting go of the handle.

 She took in a slow deep breath, working to get her nerves and her mind to stop racing and to calm themselves. Turning away from the safe she looked around the basement. Survival food and storage was to the left, and just to the left of that the stairs. Blankets and her clothing for emergencies on shelves against the stairs. Panning left again, she looked at the old leather couch, in the corner to the right of the couch was a small end table with a pile of books and magazines she had read a thousand times before. In front of the couch on the wall was a table, and on the wall was the plaques, folded and cased flags, and the mounted dog tags of her fallen comrades.

 Her feet shuffled along the concrete floor, making their way over to the couch. She sat carefully on it, the plush leather welcoming her like an old friend. She looked at the unlit candle on the table under the plaques and sighed softly. She had done the best she could have that day. It almost cost her her life. But she was here and her battle brothers where in Arlington Cemetery just minutes away from her house. That was a bus ride she made 3 times a year to see the three men’s headstones she had come to know and love as brothers, rain or shine.

 Resting her elbows on her knees, she placed her face in her hands, trying not to break down again with her emotions so raw at the moment. The crystal all but forgotten in this moment of what she saw as emotional failure. A lump in her throat threatened to crawl its way into more tears, and she tried to swallow it but it wouldn’t leave. Her mind going to the days and weeks after the encounter.

 

* * *

 

She had been to the psychologist on base, and he determined she was unfit to finish out her fourth tour. Citing in her record “Weakness of character” was their way of putting that she had earned her PTSD badge of shame. That night as she was packing her things, others from base where packing up the guys stuff, those that didn’t need their things anymore, to send back to their families stateside. Pictures, a bible, a Thor's hammer necklace in silver. All the personal (non mission specific things) where all packed in boxes and left on the foot of their racks, waiting for the MP’s to pick them up and take them to their next destination.

 She rose from her rack, and went over to Field’s box, taking out his Thor’s hammer necklace looking it over with slightly shaking hands. It was still covered in blood. Her thumb caressed the hammer head, it’s smooth silver sheen now deep crimson and dull. He had worn this thing day and night, like the Norse Pagan he was. Citing that Thor was his god, and when he died he would feast with his brothers and sisters in Valhalla for all the rest of his immortal unlife. It was a great joke among them, but Field’s was quite serious about it.

 She was never very serious about her faith, citing agnostic when she signed up for the Marines. But now she found that comfort in the thought of Fields partying, drinking, and carousing with loose women in Valhalla. She laughed a little, a slight smile quirking to her expression, tears threatening to roll down her cheeks again. She carried the necklace over to the sink, and started washing it off. Flecks of dried blood flowing down the drain with the clean water. She said a silent prayer to Fields in his land of Asgard, as the tears started to silently cascade down her cheeks.

 When she was done cleaning the necklace, she dried it with a rag, and put it on. The cold silver unfamiliar to her skin. She looked into the mirror, her eyes a puffy red, she scrubbed her cheeks clean of tears and looked at the necklace. Dangling there against her shirt, she nodded a couple of times. Knowing that this was now her thing.

 She reached up as she heard the door open, and tucked the necklace into her shirt quickly before turning away and going to sit back down on her rack. The memory faded away like a distant storm.

 

* * *

 

The little bot G had run far sweeping broad range scans during the night, hoping to pick up on the signal of the spark shard. When he didn’t find it, he sighed and confined himself to his hiding spot, atop an apartment building. Standing at the east facing edge of the building, he watched the sun rise with awe and wonder. They never had this kind of view on Cybertron, and the fact that this little dirtball floating out in the middle of space supported such a fragile, yet intelligent young species of life so much like their own.

 He wasn’t the biggest of bots, but in fact one of the smallest. His frame thin without places to hide much. Angular angry looking face with tall frames swiveled as he watched the pigeons fly by from the street. Shifting he weight on his frame, he contemplated how to find the woman he handed the shard to. Unfortunately that probably meant coming through the department of motor vehicles looking for some sort of identification, or public records within the city and outlying areas. He would have time as he moved from the ledge, the full sun now above the horizon and the sky taking on it’s late golden hues of color with it’s splash of clouds of an impending storm.

 Moving off to his hiding spot, he wiggled his way into a broken window, the room full of boxes and crates undisturbed from many decades ago. A thin layer of dust and more than enough cobwebs lay on everything. Making sure to step into his old footprints, he moved off to the back of the room, into an area he had built for himself to hide in. When he tucked himself into the hole under the stack of boxes, he pulled a piece of cardboard over the entrance to hide.

 He hated dragging humans into their war, but this time he couldn’t help it. Holding out his hand in the dark hiding spot, a holo projection of the woman came up as he studied it. She was ordinary looking, nothing that stood out of note. No notable features or scars, angular healthy face, proportionately set brown eyes, raven black hair in a braid down to the middle of her back. Her manner of dress was a red and black patterned flannel shirt, worn jeans that where dirty with rust and grime, and work boots that had clearly seen better days. He remembered her hand, calloused from working and strong.

 “Who are you…” he trailed off quietly as he isolated her face and shoulders, and started diving into the records of the DMV and other sectors of the city. The department security was easy to bypass for him, as dozens of images a second flew across the holo projection next to the woman’s face. People being cut out by certain factors, like being male, or not being the right height or weight. He sat back against the box behind him, watching, waiting for the right image to come along.

 

* * *

 

She awoke on her couch, head resting against the back. She hadn’t realized she fell asleep, reminiscing about her time in Afghanistan. She rubbed her face, getting up from the couch and making her way up stairs for some breakfast. The latch on the hidden basement door was easy to access from this side, just a simple button push disengaged the lock and the door swung open. Ducking through the low exit, she walked into the kitchen, the door automatically swinging closed behind her.

 When she entered the kitchen, the tray from last nights TV dinner was still on the table with the hand towel, fork still resting in it. With a sigh, she cleared the tray away, rinsing it out and washing the fork. Putting the plastic in the plastic recycling bin, and the fork in the dish drainer, she turned around behind her and reached out for a very large glass container. Unscrewing the lid, she reached into the cabinet for a bowl. A spoon soon joined the bowl on the counter. Picking up the jar, she shook some coco rounds into the bowl and re-screwed the lid on when the bowl was full. Moving to the fridge, she pulled out the iced coffee, added a splash of cream to it, and took it over to the cereal. Pouring the coffee into the bowl, she moved off to the living room this morning.

 Most people thought her breakfast choices where weird, when she ate kids cereal with iced coffee instead of milk of some kind. She chuckled at this thought, shoveling in a mouthful of rounds and sat in her favorite recliner. The smart speaker began playing the morning news. More speculations on the alien robot fight downtown, and that people where warned to stay away as the government was in control of the area. _No shit shirlock,_ she thought to herself. “Computer,” she told the smart speaker, “turn on the TV.” The smart speaker did as it was asked to do, the TV coming to life with the Channel 2 Action News the default station of the morning.

 “In local news,” the news anchor said on the TV “Yesterday was quite an exciting and dangerous day to be downtown. Large aliens decided to turn our city streets into a boxing ring and fight their way across many blocks. As we know, the worlds governments came together years ago to outlaw and make their presence illegal world wide. This still doesn’t prevent them from putting innocent lives in danger almost on a daily basis, and as the TRF, currently at the scene says, they are a menace to our society and way of life as a whole. Four people lost their lives tragically during this skirmish and over a dozen more where hospitalized with injuries from critical to minor being reported.” Cellphone footage of the fight was seen playing on the screen, people running for their lives, and some not making it out alive without being crushed, stepped on, or mangled in their vehicles.

 “The TRF is still offering a reward of five hundred thousand dollars for the whereabouts and/or capture or extermination of one of these alien menaces. If you have any information...” the ladies voice trailed off as she stopped paying attention to the TV to finish shoveling her face full of chocolate goodness and coffee.

 When she finished off her coco rounds, she drank the chocolate infused coffee out of the bottom of the bowl and set it on the table next to her chair. “Well today is Saturday, and I have nothing to do again, might as well do some yard work.” she told the TV. Getting up, she put the bowl in the sink in the kitchen, filling it with water and rinsing off her spoon.

 


	2. The Hunt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the Cybertronian factions narrow down their search for the unknown woman, the TRF Also join the hunt for the tiny bot and the girl. Who will find her first is anyone's guess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> chapter 2. I plan on doing these (And we'll see if i manage to) Crank out a chapter a week. This chapter is not as long as the first one, but it's there.
> 
> Critiques and spelling check always welcomed. It's hard to catch some things some times when you have dyslexia.

“What do you mean you lost her...” said the menacing voice. Barricade looked over his recruited scouts, one of them missing after the skirmish earlier. “How hard is it to track one single human female?” He growled deeply, his optics looking at each one of them in turn. His hands twitched, wanting to kill these Decepticons for their stupidity and failure. He had seen the cellphone footage from the fight from many different angles. Only one had captured the faintest hint of a hand off too her, and he would have missed it if not for the bright glint of blue for the millisecond it was on screen. “Get out there and find her, use any means necessary.” he snarled at the others, optics narrowing in displeasure.

 

The others turned and left, transforming as they went and tearing out of the dilapidated industrial building they where using as a temporary hideout and base. When four of the five returned he knew they had failed and that made his mood dangerous. He shifted down into his sleek Mustang Shaleen form, decked out in insignias of one of the earths police units. The little bot known as Frenzy crawled out from his hiding compartment and sat in the passenger seat.

 

“So what now?” The tiny bot asked Barricade over private communications band. “We stand a better chance of finding the human female than any of them.” He warbled quickly in his hyper state. Barricade just growled deeply. Frenzy pulled up the video that gave the best look of the human woman. He studied it, optics narrowing as he rewound the recording and replayed it over and over.

 

The way she moved, Barricade noticed, was not typical of most humans. Most running in the same direction where upright and looking back over their shoulders. She on the other hand kept her head low, yet still sprinting and not looking back. A practiced maneuver to his practiced gaze. “She has some kind of training…” Barricade said softly. “Either in the human military, security work, or any of the former.”

 

Frenzy narrowed his eyes into a squint, watching these details, then went wide eyed. “You’re right!” he screeched excitedly bouncing in the seat. “So we look for her record?” He asked, his normal jittery self clearly getting excited for the coming hunt.

 

“Yes.” Barricade quietly answered as he worked on hacking surveillance from the area to track the woman as to where she went after they lost track of her. ATM cameras, traffic cameras, businesses, all from within a 10 block radius flew through his sensors and passed to Frenzy and split the search between them. As angles tracking this unknown woman came up, they tossed them on holo displays inside the car, noting time of each one and their logical progression.

 

The ATM had caught her running down the road in the first jaunt. Then the coffee bar on the corner caught her ducking behind the car. It also caught a good angle of the Autobot Drift landing on the rookie Decepticon that didn’t return and finishing him off quickly. It scared the woman down the road, as she darted from the road up the near clear sidewalk and sprinted out of sight of the camera’s view with impressive speed. Further down, the building with the parking garage picked her up, heading into the stairwell, and Barricade had to change angle frequently to track her movements going to the bottom floor four stories down under the building and tucking herself into the dark under the stairs where her shadow blended in with the darkness therein.

 

Frenzy watched this, again bouncing in the seat and got very excited. “That’s not typical human behavior either.” He said rapidly. “She not only is using the building and the concrete to shield the signature, she didn’t keep running and hunkered down like a soldier would in a fire fight.” Barricade made an agreeable sound, a soft growl rolling through the cab. “That’s why we didn’t find her in initial scans.” Frenzy added, a high pitched dark laugh escaping his vocal processor.

 

“We will have our work cut out for us this time.” Barricade said dripping with satisfaction. “I like it when they run.” He chuckled darkly, the sound eerie to Frenzy’s sensors. He rolled the video forward, catching the bright flash of blue as she examined the object and it went away again, darkness filling the void under the stairs.

 

* * *

 

 

Drift paced, unlike his normal calm demeanor. He almost had the shard, but the woman had darted off before he could collect her. That damn Decepticon needed a thrashing however, and now there’s no more Decepticon to worry about. He was disappointed in himself as well as the team for messing up the pickup from the unknown courier. He did however witness the hand off to the woman from the bot he knew nothing about, and while the others where engaging the Decepticons he worked to track her through the chaos of the fight. If not for that rookie interrupting his view, he would have kept optics on her and scooped her and the package and fled the scene to get them both safely out of the area.

 

He sighed heavily, sitting down on a large stone in the abandon quarry they had retreated to. Mined out granite quarry was overgrown with brush and left to collect water and whatever else the humans had thrown into it. There where signs along the edge of the cliff, stating that the water was too toxic to swim in due to the pollution.

 

“How are we going to find the shard now?” Crosshairs asked. “The Decepticons made a total mess of the pick up and now we lost the package, and the girl carrying it.” he paced now, pissed and cranky. “We need to find that woman before she either ditches the item, turns it over to the TRF, or the TRF pick her up because she’s got Cybertronian Tech.”

 

“And how do you suggest we do that?” Hound said, cleaning his weaponry and looking it over. “As good of a thrashing as we gave, we got back. Them rookies where going in all or nothing, and they have a head start on us trying to find the girl.” he looked between Drift and Crosshairs, weighing his options. “As far as we got, we not only missed the drop off and pick up, but we lost the damn thing all together.” He snorted out a cloud of smoke. “Which one of you wants to tell Prime?”

 

Drift and Crosshairs looked between each other and back to Hound and Crosshairs shrugged. “I ain’t gonna tell him.” He stated as he rolled his shoulders before bouncing on his toes. “Prime’s going to be upset as it is we where on the national news where the humans could clearly get a good look at us.” Crosshairs added. “I’m not anticipating the mood he’ll be in when he find’s out.”

 

Drift looked between Crosshairs and Hound, resigning himself to a sigh. “I will do it.” he said in that clipped Japanese-English accent. He rose from his rock and moved off from the others down the overgrown access road.

 

“Drift to Prime,” came the call over closed private communication band. “I have some bad news.” he finished, his stance shifting to a more serious one, even though no one could see him.

 

“Go ahead Drift.” Prime said, his deep voice coming through crystal clear and strong as it tended to do.

 

“We missed the drop off, saw the courier hand the package to a human girl, while we where entangled with rookie Decepticons. I almost had her, but got waylayed and had to deal with the more pressing matter first. In doing so, I lost track of the girl before both her and the package where out of sensor range, or went into hiding somewhere.”

 

Prime was quiet for a while, the comms clearly open to Drift, but nothing but dead air was between them. This made Drift nervous, so he mimicked a human thing, a calming breath. When Prime did speak, he was careful with his words. “If the shard is what I suspect,” He intoned before trailing off and pausing. “Then we had best work to find the shard quickly before the Decepticons discover it’s location.”

 

“We understand.” Drift said to Prime. “We will make it our top priority.” He glanced down the road, wondering how to break the next bit of news to him. “Mercy was with the attacking group,” he said to Prime. “You know what that means.” Drift became quiet.

 

“Then be careful. Barricade is no easy opponent and is not to be underestimated. If he has been called in on this ‘hunt’ then you are racing against the clock. Find her quickly, and the shard, and bring them both to my location. Prime out.” Prime intoned and cut communications off to Drift.

 

Drift looked to the coming dawn sky, the forest around him taking on a muted gray tone with splashes of green and brown. He turned to head back to the others, looking between Hound and Crosshairs. “We have a new mission.” He stated with all seriousness. “Prime has ordered us to find the girl and the package and bring them to him.”

 

“It’s about friken time we have something to go do” Hound stated “I was starting to rust looking at that water in the bottom of the quarry.” He shouldered his large gun and puffed on his metal cigar. “So where do we start looking?”

 

“You have got to be kidding me,” Crosshairs said. “There’s over six MILLION people in Atlanta and surrounding areas, do you know how hard that is going to be?”

 

Drift answered, “Yes, and the odds are stacked against us with Barricade in the area, along with one of his best trackers. We must be quick if we are to succeed.” he finished saying and transformed, leading them out of the quarry and on the way back into Atlanta.

 

* * *

 

They where traveling through the outskirts of downtown Atlanta, music blaring in the car and getting looks from the people on the street. The sole occupant of the car didn’t seem to notice, one arm resting on the drivers side open window ledge, the other on the steering wheel. The vehicle was a Rolls Royce Wraith, matte black with no chrome, black wheels to match. Definitely a car that was out of place in most neighborhoods. The driver also didn’t match the car, a man in his mid thirties with pale skin and strong features. Spiked short black hair was tipped in bright flame red points, clipped and sheered just above the ears. Grey t-shirt and black trench full coat, topped black worn jeans and black combat boots. Everything was nice, except for him.

 

“Are you sure they gave us everything?” came the mans baritone voice. Rich like honey, smooth as silk. “they’ve been known to throw people off the trail before in hopes of collecting the bounty themselves,” he looked over at the console of the car before turning back to the road.

 

“Lord Megatron wants this shard like no other. He’s willing to risk his best running into the TRF to find it, and the more hunters we have on the ground, the better.” came the voice over the speakers, mixed with the music. “Besides, he doesn’t trust the rookies with this information. They haven’t earned it yet.” the voice chuckled amused.

 

“Fair enough friend, I was just asking before we go tearing into some poor old grannies neighborhood and give her a heart attack.” He laughed and then sniffed, wiping his nose. “Though that does sound entertaining as hell this morning.” He chuckled again, looking out the drivers window, whistling at a lovely woman out jogging. “Show me the image of the woman again.” he requested to the voice, sliding on a set of midnight black sunglasses from the visor and putting them on.

 

The voice obliged, the glasses in the right lens conjuring up a still of the woman who had gotten the shard from the little scrap bot. “So where are you hiding beautiful.” the man said with a tinge of lust to his voice. He worked on committing her face and looks to memory.

 

“We have the public transport route she took back to what is assumed to be her domicile.” the voice said. “We are en-route to it’s path. They where very clear to search everywhere along it while they go handle some errant rookie garbage, again.” The tone from the voice was quiet, and held no amusement unlike the man.

 

“Lets start at the beginning of the rout then where our prize got on, since that particular bus didn’t have cameras it was so fucking old.” and an image of the map rout from the internet moved over the image of the woman on the inside lens of the sunglasses. His eyes flicked upon it tracing it carefully. “It looks to be a closed rout, no other buses meet up with this one on route and it returns to the bus depot downtown.” he sucked a few times through his teeth. “That’s going to take us very close to TRF controlled zones.” his tone taking on a bit of concern.

 

“They shouldn’t be a problem, they’re still picking over the remains of the fight and poor poor ShatterStar’s corpse.” the voice said amused. “Send rookies to do a ranked Decepticons job. What did they expect.” he chuckled darkly. “And now we’re left to clean up the mess. And find the target.”

 

“More for us...” the man trailed off as they headed into the downtown area out of the neighborhood they where cruising through.

 

* * *

 

LTC Lennox ran his hand over his short cut blond hair. He watched the video again, and cursed his luck. That was the same woman one of his units ran into last night about 2000J. “Did we get a name? Anything?” He asked the man standing next to him, the poor guy breaking out into a slight sweat. “How in God’s green earth did that happen,” he said to the soldier a deep frown forming on his expression. “From the video footage we combed through that was uploaded to the internet over the course of the night, this person, this Qupie321 was the only one who caught the exchange. I want that original footage NOW.” he barked, and the soldier saluted and turned, running off to fulfill the task.

 

“From what the commander who questioned her last night said, she was a veteran. Unassuming, clipped answers. Not rambling. And clearly lied about not being near the encounter.” Said the other man on the opposite side of Lennox. “It shouldn’t take us long to go through local VA records to find a match. Not many female vets. And not many looking like her.” he said, looking at Lennox. “Besides, someone said they saw her getting on one of the buses heading into the Sandy Springs area.” he crossed his arms watching the paused footage on her face, her expression was one of determination and grit.

 

Lennox looked at the man and his right eye twitched, face an expression of rage under the exterior of projected calm. “If the Decepticons find out where she is before we do, we’re going to loose that item and the girl all in one go. I’m sure the Autobots are in this as well. So now we got a 3 way race going down as to who can find her first.” He tapped the tablet and brought up an image of the tiny bot who handed her the glowing item. “And I’ve seen this little shit before. I just can’t recall where.” Lennox’s eyes narrowed. “But from my experience, some of the worst skirmishes happen when this bot shows up and shoves his nose into human affairs.”

 

“Then perhaps we should be looking for both the girl and the bot? One, to find out what the item is, and two, to find out where it got the object from?” The man said, looking away from the image of the small bot and back to Lennox. “And what drove him to choose the delivery point of downtown Atlanta, of one of the largest cities on the Eastern Seaboard?” his lips pursed together, eyes taking on a questioning look.

 

“I have no damn clue.” Lennox replied, sounding more than a little exasperated. “Take your unit, track the bot. He could be anywhere in this city. From what I remember he has a unique signature. It’s Cybertronian, but different from the rest. I’ll get you the calibrations for your sensors so you filter out all the other crap. I warn you though,” Lennox said, running his hand through his hair again, “he will not come easily, or quietly. Don’t underestimate him. I’ve seen him take down and kill bots as big as Bumblebee. He’s more than capable of defending himself.”

 

The man nodded and turned to leave. “we might be able to pick up a tractable signature of the small bot from the point of contact.” He told Lennox over his shoulder. “So we’ll start there.” He walked off heading to where his men where waiting for him to return.

 

* * *

 

Optimus Prime was mulling over the information Drift had given him. And he debated contacting his very old friend to get more accurate information on the situation. He hadn’t spoken to the bot in many cycles other than left messages on private bands that where encrypted and well above what others could listen in on. However he knew if G was working on getting this item into his hands through a secondary route, that it was something that needed to be found quickly. He thought on what the item may actually be, and a sense of loss and dread rolled through his emotional processors.

 

Going against his better judgment, he clicked over to encrypted comms and reached out for a signal only he knew how to find. “Prime to G.” his voice was guarded as he hadn’t talked to him frankly in quite some time.

 

He heard his comms click and warble softly for a few seconds before the little bot spoke. “Go ahead.” was all he said, the line softly clicking every few seconds. This was not someone he expected to talk too this afternoon.

 

“Seems you caused a little ruckus in Atlanta.” Prime said, his voice pitch carefully chosen so as not to reveal too much of the line of questioning he wanted to ask him.

 

“Everything was going according to plan until rookies showed up with one ranked hunter/tracker. Had to get the shard out of the area as fast as I could.” G trailed off quietly, knowing his words weren’t going to be easy for Prime to mull over.

 

“Do you have a lead on the girl?” Prime asked bluntly. His stance shifted, this conversation not easy for him.

 

“I do.” G responded softly. “Josephine Mitchel, Veteran of the Marines. PFC when she was drummed out of the service for PTSD.” he grew quiet for a while before speaking again. “hard to find her actual location, she doesn’t own property in her name, a registered vehicle, or a Georgia state license or identification so her address at this time is unknown to me.”

 

“Very good. I will pass along this information to the other Autobots in the area so they may assist your search for her.” Prime said, a tinge of hope to his tone. “Is there anything else you can tell me about her?”

 

It was G’s turn to remain silent for a while, the channel clicking over a few times before spoke. “When I did the hand-off, the shard shocked the girl.” He spoke very quietly. “I haven’t felt that particular energy in years...” he trailed off in his hiding hole on the roof and looked down at the floor sighing softly. “It doesn’t make sense. She died far away from earth. That shouldn’t have happened, but it did. And I’ve been thinking on it all morning long when I found Mitchel’s name.”

 

“I see,” prime intoned softly. “I know she was your friend. And I charged you with keeping her safe what seems like decades ago.”

 

“The...the shard is hers...” G trailed off this time into an almost imperceptible whisper...”its all that is left.”

 

“That shouldn’t have been possible..” Prime exclaimed carefully. “She was just a human after all.” Primes mind tried to grasp the confession but for now just couldn’t wrap his mind around it.

 

“I know.” G said finally. “but in the end she was something more, something different. An amalgamation of both species, thanks to the augmentations I did to her early on. It started with the arm, and only got built upon from there.” an audible sigh came over the comms from the little bot. “If I could go back in time and undo it all, I would. But the past is the past, and it can’t be undone.”

 

“I’m sure you only thought to do what was best by her in the end.” Prime added trying to soften his tone.

 

“I feel she could have been a match for Quintessa” G noted. “Her skills and abilities where about the same when she finally figured out everything she could and couldn’t do with all the augmentations.”

 

“We will just have to find another way to defeat her.” Prime’s voice was sounding a little shocked, but he hid it well, but not well enough from the little bot.

 

“I need to track Mitchel” G stated, his voice stronger and more sure of himself. “And thank you Prime..” he said before closing down the link and turning off the scrambler.

 

“anytime old friend.” he said to no one, knowing G could not hear him.


	3. Found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the closing in of the Autobots, Decepticons, and the TRF, the tranquil quiet suburb of Sandy Springs, Atlanta, Georgia is in for a rude awakening.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3, longer than chapter 1. Frufru and some fluff, but otherwise some good stuff.
> 
> PLEASE let me know what you think if you've made it this far. I'm itching for feedback or comments of any kind.
> 
> <3 Morty

She sighed again, walking in heels she had no idea she had kept. She felt like a fool, dressed up to go out with the guys from work. Thankfully they had agreed to a local bar close to the house so she wouldn’t have to worry about taking the bus. And being that she refused to drive, it just made things easier if she needed to get home in a pinch. Pulling up her way to low top, her scar showing right at the top of her collar bone, she sighed one final time, the destination in sight. Why did she let the guys talk her into this.

 

She cleaned up nice, black sweater low cut and off the shoulders, making her feel partially naked. A thin pencil skirt hitting her just above the knees of charcoal gray, fishnets underneath that. And the heels, black and sleek, Not too high, not low as she would have liked topped the ensemble. Her hair was done up in pins and messy, not in it’s usual braid. In her hand was a hand purse, so very much not like her, but she needed a place to keep her identification and money since she wasn’t sporting a bra tonight.

 

“I see you there Mitchel” came a voice from the standing patio outside the bar. She flashed a smile and went to greet the man. He was ordinary looking, t-shirt, jeans, boots. Brown hair clipped around the ears and tight in back, he reached out and welcomed her into a hug. “Hey gorgeous, my do you clean up nice.” he said with a grin, one arm wrapping around her shoulders and snugging her in for a couple of pulls into him.

 

“Be nice,” she said in a joking tone. What she wanted more than anything right now was to run and hide under a bush, but social graces wouldn’t allow her to do that. She politely removed his arm from around her shoulders, only getting a glance from the familiar man before he went back to his conversation of sports. A subject she grew quickly bored with. Eventually when introductions weren’t made, she meandered into the bar itself, the loud rock music playing from a live band in the corner of the room. Her other group of friends waved her over to their table, clearing room for her to sit at the crowded area.

 

“Glad you could make it.” Came the reply from Ricardo, a small Latino man smiling at her with flashes of near perfect teeth. “You look really nice.” He gave her a slight wink, as was his inclined nature to be a constant flirt. Ricardo took a sip of his beer, looking to the room then back to Jo with a salacious grin. “So, what have you been up to lately?” He said, trying to make polite conversation.

 

She shrugged, tugging at her top again before raising her hand to flag down a waitress for a drink. The lady came over, looking at the whole table then looked at Jo and smiled. Jo ordered a whiskey sour and the waitress got orders for refills around on what people had been drinking. Jo cast her eyes up and down the waitress and chuckled a little, catching Ricardo’s attention. “I should have done that.” She said to him, pointing at the waitresses tennis shoes. “Practical.”

 

“But chika,” came Ricardo’s reply over the loud music. “Deny us the lovely look at your toes? Please.” They both laughed together, Jo shaking her head. She glanced around the room, studying certain people. Their laugh, their stance, they way the talked. She wished she could be so social so easily. Even in a crowded room such as this she felt helplessly alone.

 

As the night wore on, the bar became more crowded with throngs of people coming and going in their nighttime libations. Jo stood, excusing herself from the laughter of the table and headed for the bathroom. She pushed her way through the mass, carefully stepping around and by people who otherwise ignored her. She finally got to the women’s door and thanked her lucky stars it was not also crowded with women doing their makeup and other such things she saw as frivolous. Doing her business, she stopped at the mirror on the way out to check her hair and re-stick a few bobby pins that had come loose during the night. Giving herself one final look over, she tugged up her sweater a bit and headed out into the mass of people and the smell of booze.

 

As she was walking through the throng, a stranger grabbed her by the hips from behind and pulled her into his. His breath heavy with the scent of beer and cigarettes.“Hey baby, lets get out of here and go party with the two of us.” She froze, her eyes darting to her friends table. They where oblivious of the current exchange.

 

“Let. Go. Of. Me.” She snipped her eyes closing as she ran the possibilities through her head of what to do. Someone was moving through the crowd quickly, but she had no time to notice. The drunk man’s hand started to snake to her front, fingertips under the waist of her skirt. With a loud voice, she exclaimed “Get your god damn hands off of me!” her hands clenching together, elbow coming up to meet the drunk mans temple on the side of his head.

 

The man went down in a heap, the simple maneuver knocking him out easily and he dropped to the floor. The space around Jo cleared quickly, as a man stepped in, offering to help. “You okay?” came a concerned baritone voice, the man watching her for any adverse reaction in his direction.

 

“I got it, thank you though.” She said, pushing back up a wisp of her hair that fell into her eyes. She looked at the man finally, his black hair tipped with red caught her notice for the briefest of moments before she stepped over the heap on the floor. “The audacity of some people” She said a bit exasperated.

 

“Well it looks like his friends over there noticed.” the man said, stepping in besides Jo. “Names Reginald, lets get you out of here.” And held his hand out in the direction of the entrance, a slight nod to his head for her to lead the way.

 

“Thank you.” She said, taking him on his offer and started stepping through people, who where quickly moving out of her way. “Glad to see true gentlemen can still be found in the south.” She exited the bar, taking in the nice air of the night, slightly warm and telling of the coming heatwave to come this summer. The wisteria scent heavy on the slight breeze, she gave herself another calming breath as Reginald stepped beside her, offering her an arm.

 

“Do you want a ride home?” he asked with a smooth tone. “I saw you walk in from across the street a while ago, didn’t see you drive here.” he noted, looking back and listening to the commotion in the bar as the bouncers handled the drunk guy’s friends from starting a fight out in the sidewalk.

 

“No thank you, I really don’t like riding in cars much.” She said as she as she rested her hand on his given arm. “Thank you for the help. But I think it’s time I go home and sleep this off.” She turned to him to offer him a soft smile.

 

“Well, at least let me walk you home?” he asked. “They are going to let those guys loose sooner or later and I’d hate to read about you in the morning paper.” He smiled back at her, his eyes looking her up and down quickly. “Besides I could use the fresh air myself.”

 

“Suit yourself.” She said, finally taking his arm and walking him in the direction of her home, the pit in her stomach easing significantly knowing she had for now, a protector.

 

As they walked, she kept looking back over her shoulder, and once where away from the bar only then did she relax and enjoy the walk. “So what do you do for a living Reginald?” She asked him, noting his stride was in perfect step with hers.

 

“I’m in Acquisitions and Removals.” he said quietly, eyes scanning around as they walked. Every nerve on alert for trouble from many different places. “I find things, I acquire them, and I remove them...” he flashed her a charming smile.

 

“Oh, like what?” She asked with a giggle, her free hand coming to the bridge of her nose as she rubbed it, ducking her head to hide her blushing. Oh gods how she felt like a giddy school girl, but his voice was so nice to listen too. She could fall asleep to him talking and be happy and content.

 

“Items, things, vehicles, people… whatever the job pays.” he said nonchalantly. “It changes job to job most weeks.” he chuckled softly, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. “And what is it that you do, Miss...?”

 

“It’s Jo, sorry, I seem to have the manners of a child.” She chuckled again, her free hand coming to rest on her arm looped within his. “I work in steel manufacturing and stuff. Good work, better pay, and it helps pay the bills for sure.” She cast one furtive glance back over her shoulder before turning back to look at where they where going.

 

“Nice.” his other hand came up to pat hers “I think they’re gone now. We’re doing a decent clip. That’s what they get for being too drunk to walk right.” He laughed. “Idiots.”

 

Her face turned a deep scarlet as she looked away from him, hiding her smile. Clearing her throat a bit, she looked back at him. A man his age, dressed as he was in his full trenchcoat, boots and clothing shouldn’t be this nice, looking like the ruffian he did. But he was, and she didn’t know what was coming over her. She took in a soft sighing breath and let it out gently, daring to rest her head on his shoulder as they walked. He took notice and smiled at her, that quirky grin making him all the more charming.

 

They walked in silence for a while, until she righted herself and stopped him in front of her gate. “This is home.” She said, not wanting to let go of his arm. The contact felt nice after having been without intimate company for so long. “thank you for the walk.” she said softly, looking down at the ground for a few seconds.

 

Her chin was lifted, his gaze taking her in and he smiled with his roguish charms again. “Anytime Princess.” he reached down, lifting her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. When he did let go of her hand, he waited, hands in his pockets of his trenchcoat.

 

She took that as her cue to head into her house and turned, unlatching the gate. Her steps felt light as air and she giggled softly to herself. When she had gotten a few steps into her yard, he turned and walked away his step seeming a causal stroll. What was she thinking, this guy not only offered to save her from the creep at the bar, but was a total gentleman on their walk back to her house. She stopped on the top step of her porch, watching him walk a few steps. Bringing the first two fingers to her lips and blowing through them, she let out a shrill whistle. That caused him to stop dead in his tracks and his head whipped around looking for issues, but finally rested on Jo on her porch.

 

“I’m being rude,” She spoke kinda loudly. Her neighborhood was quiet at this hour. “Would you like a cup of coffee and more conversation?” she leaned on her porch railing, watching him consider.

 

“That’s an offer I can’t refuse,” he said, turning around and walking back quickly. Unlatching the gate, he walked up the walk and bounded up the stairs two at a time. As she turned to dig out her dongol she realized she forgot her purse and she sighed heavily. “I forgot my crap back at the bar.” Her head heavily thunked on the door frame.

 

“We can get it in the morning” Reginald purred in her ear. She hadn’t realized he moved in behind her. A hand coming to rest lightly in the small of her back. His eyes flicked over the slight dip in her posture that happened when he spoke and he smiled softly with a tint of satisfaction. “Besides,” he continued to trill softly at her “Do you really want to go back there tonight?”

 

Jo just shook her head no as her hand crawled it’s way to the top of the door frame. Popping a latch, she picked out the spare house dongol out of it’s hidden nook and wove it over the keypad before replacing it back where it belonged. The soft beep let her know the door was open, and Reginald reached for the handle, opening the door for her. “Ladies first.”

 

She quickly entered, first kicking off her heels and using her foot to align them next to her work boots. As per usual, the house came alive with the smart speaker and lights, tuned to the news, he followed her in, clicking the door carefully behind them. He glanced into the living room on the left, noting it was empty. “Live here alone?” He intoned quietly, sliding back in behind her, eyes quickly looking at her shoulders, close enough she could feel his breath on the back of her neck. He chuckled softly, watching the small hairs stand on end.

 

She stood there unmoving for the briefest of moments before answering him. “I do. Have for years now.” came her very quiet words. She closed her eyes, taking in slow breaths, making sure to control her breathing as his hands slid carefully and slowly on her hips. He didn’t pull or try to force her. He just touched her with a light caress.

 

“So, what are you thinking Princess.” he exclaimed more than a question. His breath blew on her neck again deliberately as he felt her whole body shudder under his touch. A wicked grin crossing his expression he moved himself to press against her, hands easily sliding around and wrapping around her. His touch was light, non-threatening. His lips rested next to her ear and he whispered to her. “I will not do anything you don’t want tonight. Know this. You take the lead, or I will, but you need to make a decision.” He kissed her below her ear lightly.

 

She melted against him, her hands coming to cover his for a moment. She sighed heavily and thought for just a moment of what she wanted to do. When she did turn around in his grasp, she ducked her head into his chest, hands resting against his stomach. “It’s been a while..” She whispered to him, becoming disappointed in herself in a flash.

 

Reaching down to lift her chin., he offered her a deep lustful smile as her knees went weak again. “It’s a simple yes or no Princess. Yes, we go upstairs and enjoy our evening. No, I Give you a goodnight kiss and walk back out the door into the morning. I know what I would like, but that’s not what is important here.” He kissed her forehead softly.

 

Biting on her lower lip, she closed her eyes and nodded her head, hands coming up to wrap around his neck. “Yes” She gently whispered letting her full weight lean against him. She wasn’t a very short woman, not extremely tall either. Reginald moved to pick her up behind the knees and shoulders. Cradling her in his arms he gave her a passionate kiss before carrying her up the stairs to their right. She giggled. No one had ever picked her up before and managed to carry her like this, let alone up stairs. Guiding him to her room, he entered, and used his right foot to close the door, the house powering down again and becoming quite again in the early morning night.

 

* * *

 

He had been called in in the middle of the night by Prime from Richmond Virginia. Prime had said it was urgent, and that time was of the essence. So he had traveled through the night into Atlanta to meet up with the other Autobots in the area. They where looking for a woman and a shard crystal that she was given from a little bot. They had tracked her down to a neighborhood in Sandy springs suburb, and Bumblebee was getting ready to cruse by the house to get an assessment on the situation.

 

His sensors where on high alert as the other Autobots traveled on other roads parallel to Bee, and he was picking up some Decepticons ahead. Dread filled his emotional processors, it seems they may be too late. He altered his course, communicating to the others about what lay ahead.

 

When he crossed across yet another street, he saw the Rolls Royce parked along the curb on the right under a tree in the very early graying of dawn. The dread he felt grew. But he stayed focused and kept on passing by with a slow roll, mere feet from the Decepticon and didn’t start issue. If he couldn’t see Mercy’s human companion, it meant he was with the woman more than likely and to engage him would put her into grave danger. With a quick acceleration, he continued on, scanning for Cybertronian tech and other Decepticons Locations.

 

They seemed to be at a distance, a few blocks away from a particular house down the block from Mercy’s location. In the house, upstairs where little bits of tech in one corner of the house. _That must be Rage_ , he thought to himself. He could not however, detect the shard anywhere on the premises. He conveyed this to the other Autobots, and rounded a corner to meet up with Hound, Drift, and Crosshairs’ location as they all convened along the street.

 

“This is going to go down pretty bad if we attack them in this neighborhood. A lot of humans are still in bed and it would be a LOT of collateral damage and lives lost for them, this gets ugly.” Hound said to the group on a closed communications band.

 

“And with all the trees in the area, I don’t have a clear line of sight on that punk Mercy.” Crosshairs said, irritation rolling through his voice.

 

“If we engage, they will kill the girl like Bumblebee said.” Drift said, his tone calm and guarded. “None of us have any of our human allies with us to go knock on the door of the house. So we are on our own here.” He finished.

 

Bumblebee's pseudo voice came across the channel quoted from a movie from the early 1990’s. “And now… …we wait.”

 

* * *

 

“Good morning...” Came a dark voice on Reginald’s earpiece. “Is the girl still asleep?” Mercy asked, Reginald’s eyes shooting open, but he didn’t move at first. His eyes darted around the room, darkness made it hard to see.

 

“Yes, she should sleep for a while yet..” he whispered softly back to Mercy. Carefully he pulled back the covers off of himself, legs swinging over the side and landing on the area rug laying around the bed. “I’m up. I’ll let you know what I find...” he said getting up naked after last nights escapades with Jo. As he reached down onto the floor to pick up his pants, he looked over at the girl. A soft smile to her restful expression. It had been a nice change from the usual rape and murders he committed on a fairly regular basis to women who he needed to catch or just wanted to terrorize. A wistful smile played across his lips as he remembered her natural submission to his actions. The mere memory of them was making him aroused again and he shook he head to clear it. He had a job to do.

 

He put on his pants, one leg first, then the other and buttoned them up, doing up the zipper. He retrieved his shirt from the pile, and put it on. Soon belt socks and boots followed. Walking over the chair in the room, he picked up his trench and put it on also, hands going into the pocket for the sunglasses.

 

Quietly he walked across the rug to the door, looking back over the room before putting on the sunglasses. He waited for the heads up displays in the lenses to come online and show him the dark room with a slightly gray haze as if it was a black and white video. Electronic security devices on the wall and in the window where noted, and various human made bits around the room. “It’s not in the bedroom.” he intoned to Mercy on the earpiece. “Going to check the rest of the house now.” and he quietly opened the door to slip out into the hallway, closing it behind himself.

 

Other various security detection devices popped up in the hallway, nothing significant to report back on however, and he proceeded to move from room to room looking for emanations of the shard. The house was moderately sized, furnished with solid wood furniture or antiques of various make. It was also meticulously spotless, no dust laying on desks or window sills he noted. “Going down stairs, can you kill her stupid smart system from here?” He asked his companion.

 

“Yes.” was the only answer he got, and he could hear the clicking of the devices turning off as he descended the stairs to the ground level. Immediately in front of him was the living room, full of hidden electronics, security panel for the system, and other goodies. No signature here. He rounded to the right, entering into the back half of the kitchen, and his glasses hit on the kitchen table in a certain spot. He carefully walked over, thankful that the wooden floors didn’t make noise in this house. Clearly she had spent a small fortune restoring it right.

 

“Got a hit in the kitchen.” he intoned quietly, “it’s just a residual signal, nothing here however. So she did have it when she got home and didn’t get rid of it at least till she looked at it some. I didn’t see an access to the basement, so let me look around a bit more.” he chuckled softly saying to Mercy, moving out of the kitchen into the laundry room.

 

As he did a room to room search, he found nothing in the rooms, and no access to the basement. As he was coming out of the office he was passing by the entry foyer by the stairs and electronics on the wall pinged to his left under them. Head whipping around he stopped and looked, sliding his glasses down his nose a bit and grinned. “Sneaky...” he said softly before touching the panel that held the key pad. “Found the basement access, but it’s secure. If I get the code wrong it will wake her when the alarm goes off. I have an idea, but it will take a bit of time. So patience friend. We’re close, I can feel it.” He said, turning back to the kitchen.

 

“Acknowledged.” Came Mercy’s single reply, and the waiting game began.

 

* * *

 

Yawning and stretching, she began to wake up in her bed. Body relaxed and in no pain for a change. When she open her eyes, the covers on the other side of the bed where pulled back, Reginald no where to be seen. A feeling of dread froze in her gut, and she sat up, looking around the room. His coat gone, his clothes on the floor when she checked. She heaved a disappointing sigh, flopping back into bed. “Yet another one….” She said to the nothings of the room this fine spring morning.

 

The sounds of birds chirping came through the closed window, the sun shining into the room and making it bright as it reflected off the white walls. As she lay there, she replayed last nights fun through her mind, she sighed again. “Well I guess it was fun while it lasted.” She got out of bed, picking up her clothing that was scattered around the room at the foot of the bed. Shoving them into the laundry hamper, she went into her closet and got jeans, white t-shirt, underwear and socks. Her hand rested on a flannel, but she opted to forget it to day. It would be a warm day.

 

Getting dressed, she finished putting on her socks and headed for the door. Opening it, the smell of breakfast being cooked assaulted her senses, and her heart leaped in her chest. He hadn’t left after all, but snuck out of bed to cook them food. She took a few deep breaths, calming her nerves and told herself not to look too excited to see him, but just enough. Men hate bubbly girls usually.

 

She headed down the stairs, right hand on the rail her steps seeming lighter and lighter as she went. When she got to the bottom, she noted her smart speaker didn’t come on, and she found that curious. Heading through the foyer into the kitchen to the left, she leaned in against the archway. “Good morning.” She told Reginald, watching him slicing apples on a cutting board.

 

“Morning sunshine.” he said back with a charming smile. “Hope you don’t mind. I took some liberties with your kitchen.” He went back to slicing apples for them.

 

“Not at all. It’s kinda nice for a change having a hot breakfast.” She moved into the kitchen, coming to stand behind him, noting this trenchcoat was over the back of a chair at the table. “It sure beats my usual fair.”

 

“And what might that be?” he asked, he turned partially, an apple slice in his fingers, holding it close to her face. She leaned forward with her mouth, quickly snatching the apple slice and backing off again.

 

“Coco rounds with creamed iced coffee.” she giggled, eating the apple slice crunching loudly.

 

“Gods, why?” he asked shocked.

 

“Why not. I grew to love it in the service. It just kinda stuck with me. It’s not as bad as it sounds, you should really try it before you knock it.” She laughed, finishing the slice.

 

He moved things off the stove as they finished and plated them into two plates, arranging them haphazardly. Setting the hot pan off to the side and turning off the burners, he carried the plates to the table and set them down with the silverware he had laid out. “You where in the service? What branch?” he asked, motioning her to sit.

 

“I was a marine. PFC when I was done.” She sat down and started to eat, talking to him while they ate. “Spent four tours in Afghanistan. Saw some shit. Came home with a bad case of PTSD that flares up from time to time.”

 

“I see,” he said in between quick bites. “I admire a woman who wants to be in the service, let alone a marine. That’s a tough job choice.”

 

“It can be,” She popped an apple slice in her mouth, chewing a while before swallowing and answering. “Pick up a good set of skills, coping mechanisms, and traumas. Go in young and dumb, come out changed. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.” she smiled at him.

 

The front door rattled on it’s hinges, the extra reinforced steel making it hold in place with such a hard impact. She froze and eyed Reginald, then head whipping in the direction of the front door. She was already moving to stand before he did and he quickly followed her lead.

 

“TRF, OPEN THE DOOR! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!” came the command from outside on the bullhorn. The sound of the door being hit again with the hand held battering ram.

 

“Move your ass.” she said to him, quickly moving into the foyer, socked feet sliding sideways to a stop under the stairs. Quickly she hit they keypad as Reginald was putting on his coat coming around the corner out of the kitchen. The small door popped open and she disappeared within. Reginald quickly followed.

 

The battering on the door didn’t end, and she could hear the windows up stairs breaking as canisters where thrown into the house, teargas and flash-bangs went off. She waited for him to get down to the floor before hitting the closing latch at the bottom of the stairs to lock and override the door so it couldn’t be opened from inside the house. Reginald quickly looked around the room noting the flags, the couch, and the various items down here. His eyes lit on the safe as she was putting on a pair of well worn combat boots, speed lacing them and tying them off. She grabbed a tactical vest with clips and various pockets, a large duffel bag, and headed for the safe.

 

“What all do you keep down here?” he asked her quietly in the dim light of the room. They heard the front door give way and the sound of boots flooding and filling the house as she punched in the safe code, and opened it. His eyes snapped to the shard on the top shelf, and the impressive stash of assault weapons within.

 

“This is my rainy day room.” she said, grabbing an under arm holster with two 9 mm handguns and extra clips. Putting on a belt with other clips, she quickly putting them on and snapping then in place. Reaching in for the M16, she pulled it out, and a clip off the top shelf, knocking the shard to the floor with a light tinkling sound. She housed the clip in the rifle and slid a round into the chamber. “Lets go,” she barked softly to him, turning and heading for the furnace.

 

With her back turned, he quickly reached down and snatched up the shard and shoved it into his trenchcoat inner pocket. “Right behind you princess.” he said with a dark chuckle.

 

She quickly shimmied her way in behind the furnace, and under a set of pipes, a wooden panel at the base of the wall burred behind the furnace was slid out of the way and she bent herself in half and snapped a light stick into the darkness. Green light filled the void as he disappeared within. He was significantly larger than she was so had to work to fit into the space she had. He could hear someone up stairs reporting the house was empty and he thanked his lucky stars they hadn’t been caught.

 

He was more than impressed with the speed of which she reacted to the assault, and the preparation she had gone too for a day, just like today. As they traveled they where moving to the alley behind the house under the ground, and he tapped his earpiece. “We’re going to need a quick pickup… I’ll let you know when there’s a window.” he said softly.

 

“Acknowledged” came the slightly garbled reply. “There are Autobots in the area who have agreed to run interference to keep her out of TRF hands. So for now. don’t attach them if you see them.” Mercy said to him.

 

“Check” was his reply as she came to a tube upright and she stood, dropping the light on the floor. A metal ladder ascended and she climbed up, disappearing from his sight. He followed, as they came up in an old garage littered with a tick layer of dust, boxes and an old car. Outside they could hear the helicopters and the TRF rolling around searching every inch of the house. He saw light coming from covered windows as she was closing the hatch in the floor of the garage.

 

She was patting down her gear, doing an inventory check of her things he noted, and watching her was poetry to him. He might have to keep this one around after all. If only he could convince Mercy to let him keep her around. He moved over the window, and gently moved over the curtain to create a crack he could just see through as a vehicle rolled by. “Window coming up, alley behind the house. I know it’s close… but it’s the best we can do right now.” he said to Mercy.

 

“En Route.” Mercy replied, moving to intercept their position. Reginald moved off to Jo, not touching her as he could see a difference to her eyes and expression that told him to touch her now would possibly be catastrophic. A tear fell down her cheek, and he could tell she wasn’t here right now, but probably trapped in a memory somewhere in the back of her mind.

 

“Jo...” he said softly…. “Come back to me princess...” over and over. She was panting, eyes darting around, death grip on her rifle. He knew the situation was dangerous and really didn’t care. He could just leave her here for the TRF. Megatron only wanted the shard, not the girl after all. “Jo, Princess… It’s okay….” he said very gently, a hand slowly moving to rest on her shoulder. She jumped under his hand, eyes darting around, then coming to rest on him as the look of her eyes changed. Quickly she came back to reality, the tears starting to fall, silently. She swallowed.

 

“Sorry...” She said very quietly every nerve in her body alive with the vision of her trauma. She only wanted to break down and cry, curl up in the corner and let these feelings pass, but the sounds outside kept her from doing so as she knew she had to stay out of TRF hands.

 

“Don’t be...” he said, his hand sliding to her elbow as he gave her a little tug to the door that lead to the alley. “Our exit ride is on it’s way.” and he opened the door at the same time Mercy pulled up and stopped. “Lets go.” And they both exited the garage.

 

When the reality of what was about the happen to them sunk in, that they would be riding in a vehicle, she stopped dead in her tracks outside next to the car. “I can’t do this..” She told him quietly. Starting to back pedal back to the garage.

 

The suicide door swung open for them to get in without being touched, and Reginald growled deeply. “We don’t have time for this.” Coming at her quickly, his balled up fist struck her in the jaw, soon followed by his elbow. She went down in a crumpled heap, rifle clattering to the dirt. Catching her, he scooped her up and quickly put her into the back of the car, making sure she was belted in. Her head rolled to the side, he had knocked her out cold. He quickly retrieved the rifle and the duffel and set them in the other back seat. Then he quickly sat in the passenger front. The door closing behind him. “Find us an exit.” Reginald said to Mercy as the car quickly tore off down the alleyway and out of the fray as quickly as possible.


	4. On the Run

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jo has just escaped the hands of the TRF, and shit hits the fan at TRF headquarters in Washington.

LTC Lennox sighed, looking over the report from the operation in Atlanta. How in the hell could they let the girl and the item slip through their fingers with an early morning raid. He combed the particulars again. The hidden access to the basement they didn’t realize was there, the tunnel behind the furnace, and the access in the neighbors garage. He noted it was one hell of a setup.

 

“Reynolds! Get your ass in my office.. NOW..” He barked out the open door and waited, shuffling papers again to put them in the right order. He picked up a photo of the girl, looking at it. It was from her VA file which had it’s own slew of information. Her service record, her medical evaluations and diagnosis's. She was tricky alright. On par with some of the Vietnam vets he had heard stories of from his youth. “REYNOLDS!” He yelled out the door getting more annoyed by the second.

 

Major Reynolds hurried into his office, stopping and saluting Lennox and standing at attention. He could see by the expression on the Lieutenant Colonel’s face, this was going to be a not good time. “Sir..” came his clipped response.

 

“Explain to me again, how they got away Major.” Lennox said to him. “and please spare me your your personal opinions on the matter.”

 

“We arrived at 0730, quietly surrounding the house front and where in the process of getting alley access when we went to kick in the front door. Unfortunately, the front door was on reinforced mounting and didn’t give way like a normal door should have, so it took a bit to get through. We can assume, by the still warm food on the table and the hot pans on the stove, this bought them the time to get into the basement and escape via the tunnel that was later found behind the furnace.” He paused, waiting for Lennox to say something. When he didn’t, he continued. “When we followed the tunnel, it came out 2 houses down in an unused garage. We found two sets of footprints in the dust of the garage leading to the door outside. We can only assume they had a ride waiting for them. That’s when the Autobots engaged us and that’s how the damage was done to the neighborhood, Sir.” he stopped, and waited.

 

“They?” Lennox’s eyebrow arched. “Who is this ‘they’ you speak of?” Lennox leaned back in his chair, looking down at the file. According to the VA report Mitchel lived alone in her house.

 

“We found two plates on the table with breakfast having been served. Clearly she was entertaining this morning.” Reynolds cleared his throat a bit.

 

“And do we have a lead on this second unknown person?” There was a knock on the door. “Enter...” He said with a bark.

 

The secretary came in closing the door behind her. “Sir, new information.” and she placed a file on his desk “It’s fresh out of Atlanta.” She gave a neutral look to the Major before passing him and leaving, closing the door quietly behind her.

 

Lennox picked up the file and opened it, so the Major couldn’t see it. In it where photos of a high dollar luxury car, a Rolls Royce of some make, matte black and sleek looking. He turned over the photo to a close up of the emblem on the grill of the car. The Decepticon logo clearly seen. Who was it, and what was it doing in Atlanta. If it had been in the initial fight downtown, and now in Mitchel’s neighborhood, that could only mean that there was a good chance they had her and time was going to run out before they killed her. He grumbled and sighed, looking over the details of what was known. The file mentioned a human companion, but no pictures of the individual where in the file, yet. “Would you care to amend your report Major?” Lennox asked him, file closing and placed on top of the desk. “You say there where only four Autobots in your report?” He leaned back in his chair.

 

“Yes Sir, as far as we could tell.” he swallowed nervously.

 

“Do you know why they would attack you outright?” his tone became dangerous.

 

“Sir” came the majors reply. “Their aliens, hellbent on destruction and mayhem. Who can say what their agenda was attacking us outright. Stupid if you ask me, considering the force we had leveled at Mitchel. I don’t anticipate they would stick around since they’re working to keep her out of our hands.” he said matter of factually.

 

Lennox didn’t like the major’s reply. But he had inside information on the Autobots that most didn’t. He knew that they would not attack unprovoked like this, not without good reason. Decepticons however, this was their normal. So what changed recently to make the Autobots work with the Decepticons to keep Mitchel out of TRF hands.

 

With a sigh, Lennox looked the Major in the eye and his expression darkened. “Your report lacks details for one. Your Captain neglected to mention some things which I will dig into. But lets start with what is clearly obvious. First off you failed to secure the perimeter around the house and downtown during each skirmish. This lead to unneeded casualties and injuries of civilians. Second, when dealing with Mitchel, you both failed to do a full background workup on her which lead to you not having proper intel into capturing her and the item we where after. Three, failure to get operational eyes on target not knowing there where additional bystanders in the area. Clearly you didn’t post a lookout on her house that night when you found her address, and that lead to her having a guest during the raid which could have aided in her escape. Four, being flanked and outmaneuvered which goes to a failure to operational execution. You didn’t watch your six, and this lead to Cybertronians attacking you, which you claim where ‘Autobots’. However I can assure you, there are two factions to their ranks, and Autobots don’t kill people if they can help it. Decepticons however are another story, which a person of your rank in this department should be well aware of. Five, question of the validity which faction fired on the men at the Mitchel house. As I mentioned before, different factions act differently. Six, failure to understand and enact the rules of engagement. Keeping civilian casualties to a minimum is always a must. However the captain, and summarily you, since you’re his commanding officer, made a dogs dinner of the Mitchel house with unacceptable casualties of neighboring residents. Not only is this a stain on the TRF, but you, the captain, and myself. And frankly I am NOT looking forward to this talk with my superiors on the matter when I finish with you. And we haven’t even started getting into the initial skirmish downtown.” He rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

 

“You underestimated a vet who spent 4 tours in some of the worst fighting area that the US military has to offer. You clearly didn’t read her file about her PTSD and understand what a vet, let alone this one, would do in such a crisis when someone tries to breach their home. With the armory we found in the basement, you should be lucky you didn’t loose any more men to this “girl” as you call her. And where is the casualty report from the Mitchel house, it seems to be absent from the file. Now back to Mitchel. She’s a vet. With more accolades to her record that I have seen in yours.” His mood only got angrier. “Now Atlanta is a mess with not one, but two bot fights in a week. I have brass breathing down my neck to solve this issue, and I’m letting shit roll down hill on this one.” he stood up, both hands on the desk and leaned on it, his voice getting quiet, with more than enough menace to it to make any man quiver in his boots. “Whatever the girl has, the bots worked together to keep it away from us. And that’s a rare thing I have not seen before from my time in the field with them. Get your ass back to Atlanta, clean up these messes. Try to keep as much as you can out and away from the news media. And for gods sake. FIND HER!” he pounded his fist on the desk. “Dismissed!”

 

Major Reynolds saluted and turned, hurrying out of the office without seeming to try and scurry. He quickly disappeared.

 

Lennox sat down in his chair, looking over the files again and their missing details. He thought to himself about what they where deliberately leaving out details to make themselves look better. Minutes passed as he flipped through pages and images, his eyes always going back to the Rolls Royce. “who are you...” he questioned the room.

 

A knock came at his door, and he looked up. “Come in...” he intoned.

 

His secretary, whom usually never knocked looked bothered by something, a tablet in her hand. She walked to his desk, placing the tablet down where he could watch whatever she had loaded on the screen. “Sir, you need to see this...” Her voice was guarded. “You’re not going to like what I have to show you,” and she hit play on the tablet.

 

A video played, a live stream from a streamer across the street from the Mitchel house. Two distinct voices could be heard, young boys exclaiming that the military was in their neighborhood blockading the block and getting ready to raid the house. The window was open and voices could be heard drifting up from the encounter, orders being barked and men maneuvering into position. “I can’t fucking believe this shit.” said one voice. “This isn’t swat, this is TRF raid from the looks of it from what I can hear.” The other voice added “What the fuck is the TRF doing raiding a civilian house anyhow? What the fuck did she do? I mean, she’s a hottie, but shit… getting mixed up with giant alien robots? Her?” The first voice spoke again as the camera was adjusted. “Are we on?” “Yea, we’re streaming now… Hits are coming in fast and furious. Up to 300 streamers and more joining every second.” “holy shit dude, this is going to be my most popular vid...” The voices died off as the flash bangs across the street went off, bright flashes of light in the camera noted as the pounding on the front door can be seen and heard clearly on the webcam. “dude, that front door isn’t caving….” one boy noted breathlessly. As the soldiers moved charges to the front door to blow it, people started climbing trough the windows, the only other easy avenue of entry available into the residence. “Clear!” came a voice from across the street, and the door blew off its hinges into the house, smoke rising. A flood of soldiers went into the house and shouting could be heard.

 

Suddenly one of the TRF rigs exploded, flipping into the air and landing on it’s side in the street, as the Autobots came from the right of the screen and engaged the TRF. Over and through the yard, careful to avoid the humans as they rolled, tumbled and drive through causing havoc and chaos. Clearly from Lennox’s view, they where just attacking to cause collateral damage to equipment, not life. He knew it. He knew the streak of yellow well as his mood only darkened and the video continued. As soon as it was started, the Autobots rolled out and departed the opposite way they had come in. The men shooting after them. People had come out of their houses to watch, those that had not gone to church early that morning being it was Sunday. The captain can be heard cussing, ordering one of the working vehicles to pursue them, as it took off out into the morning light after them. A soldier came out of the house to give a report to the captain. He can be seen on camera, but not what he was saying.

 

About a minute passed before missiles came in from the same direction the Autobots came from, civilian cars, houses, and people all targets. That’s when the bloodbath started and TRF agents started being targeted. Four more vehicles became giant robots and started being indiscriminate in whom they where targeting. Clearly these where Decepticons to Lennox’s trained eye, as civilians stood outside watching their neighborhood being turned into a war zone. The boys can be heard repeating “fuck fuck fuck” over and over again in the video as men died on camera, one being squished under good making a squelching pop sound with his dying screams. The captain can be heard yelling at his men “Kill them, kill them all!” and another responding with “Sir?” The captain seemed in a frenzy, arms flailing as he gave his order. “DID I STUDDER?! JUST DO IT!!” And that’s when the Men started also opening fire on the civilians standing about in their yards watching. Screams can be heard filling the streets, as people where hit and lay dying. “Dude turn it off turn it off!” came one boy as the camera was yanked out of the window and landed on the floor rolling to look under the bed in the room. Seconds later clear sounds of bullets going through glass and wood and plaster walls registered on the camera, pieces landing in front of the camera on the carpet. “Get in the hall, stay low.. move your ass.” you can hear one boy saying, the sound of their crawling being picked up by the microphone. The bullets stopped hitting the window, but didn’t stop outside as you could hear the sounds of vehicles driving off rapidly. Gunfire echoing off the houses on the block. Soon it was all quiet, and then the feed died. Nothing but snow could be seen as the notification of end of stream showed on the video before it ended.

 

Lennox, eyes wide looked up to his secretary who didn’t leave this time. “Where did you get this?” he asked her quietly, clearly shocked at what he just saw.

 

“My eldest son found it on a popular video game streaming website. He want’s to be a CIA/NSA data miner/annalist.” she sighed softly. “He saw this and knew it pertained to my work and sent me the link. It’s currently getting about a hundred hits a second and growing.” She pursed her lips together, looking at him.

 

“Thank you, Pass this to who needs it please. And download me a copy for the reports. That motherfucker covered this up. They both did...” He rose from his desk, picking up the tablet, the reports, and shoved them into a bag. “Have a car brought around, I need to take this up the food chain.”

 

“There is already a vehicle waiting for you downstairs.” She said, opening the door for him and closing it behind them.

 

* * *

 

 

The little bot known as G replayed the video again in his hiding spot. He watched as the hit counter went over 2 million in just under 6 hours from the time of the initial recording this morning. He picked apart the minute details, things that most people would have missed in the exchange before freeze framing it on a clear view of the captain. This sleezeball ordered the deaths of innocents and this didn’t sit well with him. On another heads up display from his hand, he brought up a map, tracking Bumblebee’s signature as they chased the Decepticon that had the Mitchel woman. They where headed west out of Atlanta and then had turned south to New Orleans. To what end he didn’t know. Right now there where too many moving parts and he needed to figure them all out before he made his next move.

 

He opened comms to Bee, the encrypted network clicking and warbling softly in the background every few seconds. “G to Bee.” he said softly.

 

Bumblebee picked up however he was quiet, listening.

 

“Be careful in New Orleans. It’s known for heavy ‘Con activity and with your unit being split in 2 right now, you’re not fighting at your full capacity.”

 

A clip from a movie came across on the comms. “Aye aye captain” a was the only reply.

 

“If you loose track of them, come back and regroup to figure out what you’re doing next.” G intoned gently. “You also need to see this.” And he shot Bee a clip of the video from the streamer. “I suggest you watch it when you have a break. It’s a lot to take in.”

 

“On thing at a time man.” came a woman’s voice from a popular TV show.

 

“G out.” and he cut communication with Bumblebee. Hopefully Bee would be able to catch them and extract the woman before they got too much further. But right now everything hinged on that, and without her and the shard in the hands of the Autobots where it was intended to go, things could be very bleak indeed for their future. He went back to studying other files and information on the rooftop hiding spot, trying to piece together the bigger picture.

 

* * *

 

She stirred, her head hurting like the devil and she groaned, arm coming up to cover her eyes from the light shining in the tinted window. It took her a while to get her bearings before she realized she was in a moving car. Eyes snapped open as she looked around herself. Lush interior, with her bag and gear in the back seat next to her. In the drivers seat was Reginald, sunglasses on and driving into a city on a freeway. Her breathing started to become in pants, panic starting to set in.

 

With a glance over his shoulder, he smirked a smile before looking back at the road ahead of himself out of habit. “Welcome back Princess.” he said softly with his rich baritone voice. “I suggest you take a few deep breaths and relax back there. I’d hate to have to come back there and restrain you.” clearly it wasn’t a threat.

 

Trembling, she did as she was told, forcing herself to breath deep and slow, working on controlling her rising panic. About a minute passed before she could speak, only a slight shake to her hands was left of her attack. “Where are we?” she asked Reginald looking out the window.

 

“The big easy. New Orleans.” He replied with a soft chuckle. “We’re not staying. We’re going to meet up with a friend and then we’re headed to one of my retreats down the coast. Hole up there and should ride out the impending shit storm that no doubt will follow us if they can keep up.”

 

“What shit storm? Who?” She asked, looking back to him, watching him drive.

 

He reached into the passenger seat and grabbed a smartphone, passing it back to her. “Watch that video… it will answer most of your questions.” he said, turning back around to look forward. “If not for that escape tunnel of yours, we’d both be in TRF hands right about now, none of which would be good for either of us.”

 

She hit play on the video on the phone, the neighbors stream playing for her as she gasped with shock in a few places. “My house… the neighbors…” She trailed off as the video came to an end. “They murdered people in cold blood…” she looked up at him, a little shocked. She had known these people for years. Had left her alone and where nice enough to invite her to barbecue's every once in a while, some of which she even attended. “Their just… gone...” She said quietly, more to herself than to him.

 

“That’s not our doing Princess.” he said. “Besides, there’s really no going back now. Now that they know where you live.” he got off the interstate into the industrial district of the city. “I know this is going to be a hard pill to swallow, but you need to think about yourself right now. There is nothing you can do for them. Other than stay alive and stay out of TRF hands.”

 

She sat there, taking in what he had to say, and mulling over the video in her mind. She at least hoped the boys would be okay. Her mind raced, and the fact she was in a moving car didn’t seem so important anymore. She looked back out the window at the abandoned warehouses and old businesses that never quite recovered from hurricane Katrina.

 

As they rolled slowly through the district, they turned into a driveway in front of a rolling door and stopped. Reginald looked back at her without a smile. “Stay in the car.” he said before getting out and digging into his pocket. Fishing out a key, he unlocked the padlock on the rolling door and opened it. The car moving on it’s own startled Jo, her eyes went wide as the car came to a stop just inside. With the door closing, it was dark in the warehouse through the tinted windows.

 

Reginald got back in the car, taking off the sunglasses and putting them in the visor. They continued into the warehouse center before stopping. Reginald getting out and grabbing her gear out of the back. “You can get out now and stretch your legs. But know we need to travel again after this exchange.”

 

She nodded as her door opened without anyone opening it, and she got out. Muscles cramped and stiff protested as she unfolded herself from the back seat. “What time is it?” she asked Reginald over the top of the car.

 

“Just after 4 PM. We made decent time getting here. Slower than I would have liked, but traffic getting through places was a damn nightmare with accidents.” he came around the car to stand next to her and placed her gear at her feet. “I took off a lot of your gear and stashed it in the bag.” he gave her a wink.

 

“Thanks, I think...” She trailed off kneeling down to check her stash and gear. She took a quick inventory, shuffling through things and moving things around in her duffel. “When is your friend going to show?” She stood up and looked at him, her hands unclipping and removing her tack vest.

 

“They’ll be here when they get here.” he said, looking at his watch in the dark warehouse. “Until then, we wait.” He looked around the warehouse slowly, it’s barren floors making clear views to the walls. “Mercy, did we make it in undetected?” Jo looked at him as he looked at his car.

 

“Yes.” came the only reply from the car, deep voice, much like Reginald’s shocked Jo and she took a step back. “He just got a hold of me, he’s 30 minutes out.” and the voice went quiet.

 

“Great, we won’t have to wait long then.” he said, watching Jo for her reaction out of the corner of his eye. He glanced at the car, then back to her again.

 

“Who was that?” Jo asked Reginald. “There was no one else in the car.” a feeling of dread quickly rising in her throat.

 

“Mercy, My partner.” He sniffed, wiping under his nose with the back of his right finger. “Might as well show her Mercy. In for a penny in for a pound.”

 

To Jo’s eyes it all happened at once. The car broke apart into millions of pieces and rearranged itself into a bot standing about twenty feet tall. Almost as tall as the roof of the warehouse. Black sleek color broken up by silver and red accents. Glowing red eyes set into a face that looked none to friendly with it’s sharp angular angry looking features. The large bots feet shifted, getting a better view of Jo as he looked down on her. She tried to back up but bumped into Reginald, who grabbed her upper arms and stopped her from running.

 

“Relax, he’s not going to hurt you.” He said to her quietly, trying to keep her calm as she just tensed up in his grasp. “If we wanted too, it would have been done by now. In all truth he doesn’t think you’re half bad.” he chuckled softly.

 

“but… outside my house, those that...” and she left the thought unfinished as Mercy leaned down onto one hand to get a better look at Jo. Try as she might to back up, Reginald held her firmly so she didn’t go anywhere.

 

“The first wave where Autobots, a rival faction. We knew they where in the area and asked them to run interference while we got an exit out the back.” he told her from behind. “From what I saw, they didn’t hurt anyone. The rookies that came in the second wave however where not so forgiving.” his voice matter of factually.

 

“Doesn’t make a difference.” Mercy said, his optics narrowing as he examined Jo one final time before standing up. “Rookies weren’t suppose to be there, but yet here we are.”

 

“Autobots are going to have a field day with them if they ever get caught.” Reginald said to Mercy. “But you’re right, not our monkeys, not our circus. Anymore”

 

“What faction are these ‘rookies’?” Jo asked her eyes not leaving Mercy’s form.

 

“Ours.” Reginald said gently. “Known as the Decepticons. By rote most hate humans. They see them as vermin, or something to be eliminated. The rookies are no exception. However a few know the benefits of working with humans and the cover they can provide, like Mercy here.”

 

Jo fell silent, not wanting to anger them with more questions and she took a deep breath to calm her nerves again. It seemed that the last three days have been a whirlwind of crazy all rolled into a ‘fuck it all’ burrito. She raised her right hand and touched his hand on her left arm.

 

He made a soft sound and finally let her go, moving off a couple of steps before taking out his phone and dialing a number. His voice was quiet as he spoke in clipped Spanish to the person on the other end. Watching her walk around a bit, he admired the way she moved, the sureness to her step. The way she assessed the area, though there was not much to see. After a few minutes he hung up the phone and walked over to her, standing next to her looking out the dirty window to the street. “Penny for your thoughts?”

 

“This is all just a lot to take in is all.” She said, turning to him with an expression on her face he hadn’t ever see her have. “First downtown, then the bar, now this? It feels like my life has been flipped upside down and run through a blender in puree.” she sighed, running a hand though her tangled hair, fingers catching on the knots. “I just.. dunno. I don’t know what to think right now.” She trailed off, locking eye contact with him.

 

“I know how you feel. My introduction was not so casual or nice.” he said, reaching out and caressed her cheek with his right hand. “I got thrown to the wolves when Mercy chose me and I tried to fight it at first, but then things just kinda fell into place and now this is what I do.” he stepped closer to her, reaching out and put his left hand on her arm. “Sometimes fate comes knocking, and if we don’t answer the door, it will beat down the door and let itself in in not good ways.” he brushed some of the hair out of her eyes. “You have a very serious choice to make in the next few days. And what you decide will or won’t hinder your future with all of what we do from that point forward.” her offered her a soft smile. “Besides, having someone else to talk too on long trips is always helpful.” his hand on her cheek fell away.

 

“So what exactly is it that you do?” she asked bluntly, eyes questioning him about his description the other night.

 

“Pretty much whatever is needed by the faction. Theft, rapes, murders, kidnappings, all sorts of shit.” he sniffed eyes watching her for an unfavorable reaction. He saw her look turn dark, and he sighed. “You wanted the truth, there it is.”

 

“So you’re not a nice guy, is what you’re saying.” she frowned, taking a small step back from him, eyes not leaving his.

 

“Never said I was. You assumed. Which is fine. I didn’t intend on keeping you. We where to get the item you held, and well, I wasn’t leaving you for the TRF. I could have, but didn’t.” He reached up to touch her cheek again and she slapped away his hand with a loud smack. Mercy looked up from what he was doing and Reginald held up a hand to him that he had things under control.

 

“Don’t touch me.” She barked.

 

“Little late for that don’t you think Princess?” he grinned salaciously watching her process it all. “Just realize your options are extremely limited right now, and you’re not going to make it out of this alive unless you cooperate and do exactly as I say in the next hour or so. Whereas that might upset me for a bit, I’ll get over it. As I have come to like you in some way, and that’s a rare thing indeed.”

 

She growled softly, storm rolling across her expression “What where they looking for?” she asked him.

 

“The item the small bot gave to you in downtown. I went through your house while you where sleeping and couldn’t find it. I figured you stashed it in the basement when I couldn’t get down there without tripping the alarm.”

 

Her mind brought up an image of the object from that night she had stashed in the safe. “I didn’t grab it when we left...” she trailed off.

 

“I know. You knocked it off the shelf in the safe in your haste to get your guns. I picked it up and pocketed it.” He reached into his pocket and pulled it out, holding it up in front of her eyes. “The TRF will kill anyone to get this little item. And so will most Decepticons. Autobots want you for their own reasons, but still related to this item.” He turned it as the dim dirty light through the window caught the stone and made it glint softly with it’s blue inner glow.

 

She reached out to snatch it from him, but he was faster and snatched it back. “I don’t think so Princess.” he chuckled, finger waggling at her. “We’re handing this off and then we’ll be on our way out of New Orleans to my place down the coast.”

 

A look of frustration passed over her expression and she sighed in a huff, crossing her arms. “Fine...” was her only single word reply.

 

About then, the rolling door rolled up and in drove a cop car to Jo’s perception. The door closed and a little bot got back in the car, before it came over next to Mercy, the little bot getting out again as the cop car also broke apart into a million pieces reforming into a shorter bot about fifteen feet tall. Looking at each other, silent communications traveling between them.

 

The small bot, Frenzy, looked around and spotted the humans over by window and hissed, scurrying over. Reginald turned, nodding to him and held out the shard, which was quickly snatched. “Thanks meatsack.” Frenzy said in rapid fire speech, before he retreated back to the bots. He handed the shard up to Barricade and watched the humans again.

 

Barricade held the shard in the palm of his hand, eyes narrowing as he ascertained the nature of it. It was so small, not like a regular bots spark, but it was a spark shard none the less, in a rudimentary case to keep the essence from fading away into the ether. After a few seconds his eyes went wide, he looked up to Mercy and his voice was guarded. “Do you know who this belonged too?”

 

Mercy shrugged, “no clue, it’s weird though that I do know. It’s got a bit of a different resonance to it that isn’t like usual sparks.” he glanced at the humans who where standing their listening quietly, not saying a word.

 

“It belonged to a human...” Barricade trailed off, carefully watching Mercy’s reaction.

 

“Impossible...” came Mercy’s reply. “Humans don’t have sparks.”

 

“This one did. She was part Cybertronian. Started with her left arm. She lost it in a fire fight with Decepticons in Tokyo. She killed the rookie before she passed out from pain and blood loss.” he clenched the spark in his fist before opening a panel in his chassis and stashed the spark. “She was a good friend of mine, but not allied with the cause. She did her own thing. She disappeared a very long time ago, unheard from. Now we know what happened to her.” he got quiet.

 

“How is this possible that a mere human came to grow a spark?” Mercy asked him, eyes looking around the warehouse before coming to rest on his humans a short distance away.

 

“I said it started with the arm. Then came the nanites, and then the leg. She had a good bit of Cybertronian wares by the time she disappeared. As for who gave her the augmentations, I don’t know. And she refused to tell me. However I do know it was one of her most powerful assets, and she knew how to use them well.” he looked at Mercy. “It’s how I got Frenzy back. She rebuilt him. One hell of a medic/mechanic.”

 

“How did she get his spark back?” Mercy asked Barricade with a bit of breathlessness to his vocals.

 

“That I don’t know either.” he looked over at the humans with a neutral expression. “I do know that when he did come back online he was very disoriented and had to be brought around. Was a bit traumatic for him, but I for one am glad I have my partner back.”

 

“It looks like I’m picking up another one...” Mercy trailed off looking at Jo. “She’s no slouch, and comes with a good skill set.”

 

“Good. Far too often the rookies who want human companions find the stupid humans.” he chuckled. “But far be it from us to be on the level of a rookie.” They both laughed. “I need to get this to Lord Megatron.” He noted, heading towards the sliding door before transforming again. “Go lay low with the girl. I’ll call you when I need you next.” he said, as Frenzy opened the rolling door and closed it again behind them.

 

Mercy watched them leave before walking over to the humans and looked down on them “So what’s the verdict...” He looked at Reginald.

 

Reginald looked to Jo and shrugged. “Make a choice Princess. You can come with us, Or I can leave your corpse here.”

 

With a darkening expression, she looked between Reginald and Mercy and back to Reginald. She was angry, angry that she had been played. Angry that she had been manipulated. Angry that she lost her house, her neighbors killed, her neighborhood decimated. She knew she really didn’t have a choice, and she sighed, still angry. “I’ll come with you.” she said to them both, looking between them “But don’t think I like this arrangement.”

 

“Fair enough.” Said mercy before he transformed into the Rolls Royce Wraith again, wheels settling on the smooth dusty concrete.

 

Reginald moved around to the passenger side of the car and opened the door picking up Jo’s bag and gear and putting it in the back seat. “My dear.” He motioned for her to get in the passenger front seat.

 

She was too angry to care that she was getting into a car again, and slid into the comfort of the conforming seat. Closing the door, Reginald came around and got in the drivers side as they drove to the roll door, Reginald getting out, opening and closing it behind them, placing the lock back on the handle. “Time to go home and spend some R&R” and they headed to the piers south of town.


End file.
